Thursday, December 27, 2012

12 Days of Ramen

I'm off work all week! Every year, our Memphis Flyer offices close for the holidays, and we get Christmas Eve through New Year's Day off work (except this year, we'll have to work on New Year's Day due to deadline times for the next issue). And you know what that means?

Okay, you probably don't. But it means ramen noodles every day! You see, I've long had this weekend tradition of sleeping in, making a steamy bowl of rice noodle ramen, and eating them in my PJs while lounging on the couch and watching an hour-long TV show from Netflix (right now, I'm working my way through the last season of Big Love).

I've blogged about this tradition and my love for ramen plenty of times before. But this may the first time that I can remember eating ramen for every day of holiday vacation. I mean, why not? It's like one big giant weekend, right? So why not treat it like one? I called this post "12 Days of Ramen" because it's cute, but it's really more like nine days (since I had a proper breakfast on Xmas Day and I only have 10 days off work).

Yes, tofu noodles! I found these crazy thin tofu sheets separated into noodles at the Asian market by my house.

The Viet Hoa Asian market has the craziest ramen accessories! And they have a wide selection of vegan noodles. These are a few of my faves. Note: Even though the purple package says "beef flavor," it's indicated as "artificial beef flavor" in the ingredients.

I also keep this Savory Baked Tofu from the Viet Hoa in stock too. It's the firmest tofu I've ever seen. It's pressed and baked and it comes four large squares to a package. I freeze them for later use.

Check it out:

Here's a bowl with the tofu cubes:

Also, I keep frozen mixed veggies in the freezer to add. A bowl of ramen without tofu and veggies just isn't right. Oh, and I always, always add plenty of sriracha to the broth. You may have noticed that both bowls pictured are in the same bowl. That's because I have a dedicated bowl that's only to be used for ramen, and I have a special soup spoon and special chopsticks. Ramen is a ritual for me.

Is Big Love that Mormon show? I've been meaning to watch it for a while. Sleeping in and kicking back with ramen sounds like a pretty awesome tradition, and it must be nice to have the break! I love ramen with tofu and veggies, but sometimes after a late night of hootenanny, I just can't muster up the effort. Kudos on that, ha ha. :)

I'm a new born "mostly vegan", as my hygiene products have yet to be converted. After being made aware of how the food industry treats animals my fiancee and I committed to at minimum 6 weeks of mostly vegan/vegetarian. we acknowledge that veganism is a complete lifestyle change, so what we ate doing is not fully considered vegan. but after witnessing the film "Vegucated" we decided to do something about it, and honestly am going into this with long term intensions in mind.

So, having said that, I love your ramen tradition and now I'm hooked on finding my local Asian market, and exploring the world of ramen. Thanks for the inspiration!

My name is Bianca ...

About Me

I'm an 11-year vegan, 21-year vegetarian from the Mid-South, not too far from the muddy banks of the Mississippi River. And that means cornbread, butter beans, and collard greens.
These days, I live in Memphis. Check out my cookbook — Cookin' Crunk. It's filled with yummilicious veganized soul food and country classics.